Marta narrates her experience of the 1986 invasion of Arcatao, at a time when she was pregnant, and how her husband was killed by the military.
Transcription
When I was 19, I partnered up with a comrade who had been a guerrilla. I got pregnant. I was still living at my mom’s house but then we tried to become partners. He took me to another house so we could live together. I was pregnant when the invasion happened. And... well... he didn’t get to enjoy what he wanted the most, my daughter. During my pregnancy I was with him for eight months, and then when the invasion happened, they took him away. They took us all out of the house and took us to the church. They locked us up there and tortured us. The men were also taken out and tortured. I tried to get out but I couldn’t because the soldiers wouldn’t let me. They pushed me with their rifles so I’d go back inside, and I tried to obey because of my pregnancy. I thought to myself, “If they hit me in the wrong place, they’ll make me have a miscarriage.” So I tried not to demand anything, or to go outside to see what they had done with my husband, because I was afraid they were going to hit my belly. That’s why I didn’t see when they took him away; otherwise I would have followed him. I think they probably would have killed me if I had done that, because killing people meant nothing to them. They killed people with children and they killed pregnant women. They killed whomever. So I often think that’s why I didn’t get to see him. They took him away and killed him. That is the tragedy of my life and up to this day I can’t forget it, and I have this daughter who is a gift from God. God gave me my daughter, who is the fruit of someone I loved and continue loving. I have my daughter who to me is… I have more children but she is my right hand, my life. And I think that I can never forget this, what happened in the war. I will never forget it!